Bio of John J. HUFFMAN (b.1842), Yellow Medicine Co., MN

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JOHN J. HUFFMAN (1872)

John J. Huffman was the first settler of Hammer township, and for forty-
two years he has lived on the one farm on section 6.  He is one of the 
very few men in Yellow Medicine county who still live on a homestead they 
took that long ago.  The Huffman farm occupies a very high position, its 
altitude being greater than any adjacent territory.  From it can be seen 
Crow Timber of the Lac qui Parle, where hundreds of Indians were captured 
by General Sibley during the Sioux War.  From it can be seen the Antelope 
hills and the hills of Dakota; the villages of Madison, twenty-two miles; 
Dawson, twenty miles; Gary, South Dakota; and Burr and Canby.

The gentleman whose name heads this review was born in Ontario, Canada, 
May 8, 1842.  His father Henry Huffman, was born in Canada; his mother 
Ann (Mullholand) Huffman, in Ireland.  John grew to manhood and was 
educated in Canada.  At the age of eighteen years he began to work in 
sawmills, and four years later, in 1864, he came to the States.  He 
located at Corry, Erie county, Pennsylvania, where for four years he 
worked in the shingle mills.

In 1868 Mr. Huffman came to Minnesota and bought an eighty acre farm near
Pickwick, Winona county.  He engaged in farming it until 1871.  Then he 
sold out and spend the following winter in Lac qui Parle county.  He made 
the trip overland with oxen, his personal property consisting of a yoke 
of oxen, one cow, one heifer, one pig, a dozen chickens, household goods,
and twenty-five cents in money.  At that time the family consisted of 
himself, wife and three children.

In the spring of 1872 Mr. Huffman became a resident of Yellow Medicine
county, taking as a homestead the east half of the northeast quarter of
section 6, in what is now Hammer township.  At the time he moved to his
claim his nearest neighbor was eighteen miles away.  Mr. Huffman has
prospered and is today the owner of a well improved 200-acres farm.  He 
owns stock in the Farmers Elevator Company of Burr.

Mr. Huffman served two years as a member of the township board of
supervisors, being chairman one year,  was constable of his precinct
eighteen years, and a member of the school board of district No. 38 many
years.  He is a member of the Presbyterian church.

Mr. Huffman was married in Ontario, Canada, to Sarah Neville.  She was 
born in County Limerick, Ireland, January 22, 1844, and moved to Canada 
at theage of eighteen years.  Her parents, James and Sarah (Caryl) 
Neville, were born and died in Ireland.  The children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Huffman are as follows:  Minnie (Mrs. George W. Simpson) of Canada, born 
October 5, 1865; James H., born March 6, 1868; Jacob, born November 7, 
1870; Ambrose N., born November 9, 1874; John N., born May 25, 1879; 
Winnifred P., born August 13, 1882; and Ruby Estelle, born August 19, 1885.

Source: "A History of Yellow Medicine County" by Arthur P. Rose
Published 1914